Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Yaakov Kirschen, the cartoonist of DRY BONES, is as keen an observer of the U.S. political scene as he is of Israel's bizarro political world. Here are two of his recent offerings. They are both quite funny--so why am I not laughing?

The provenance of the following e-mail is unknown to me. It has been circulating on the internet almost since the release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. One might accuse me of the sort of wanton publication of unsubstantiated rumor for which bloggers are frequently condemned, except Snopes.com rates this e-mail as "True."

Tale of Two Houses

House #1A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

House #2Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

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HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; It is the home of the 'Environmentalist' Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence of the Ex-President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

It is a fine movie, and great for a date. Well-shot, well-paced. Rob Reiner's talent shows through (he co-wrote the script and directed). Go see it.

The characters actually develop and are revealed gradually throughout the movie. Rare these days. Regarding one character (I won't say which) it looks like there was some cutting that didn't allow his full development.

The movie is set in 1962. For those old enough to remember the early 60s (I am, but just barely) this movie captures that era perfectly, IMO.

The movie's release pattern has been interesting. It looks like the studio is trying a word-of-mouth campaign. It was not released widely, even in L.A. It does seem to me the kind of flick that will have "legs." (The audience in our suburban theater gave it sustained applause.)

As he proved so winningly in "Stand by Me," Rob Reiner is a filmmaker who has a way of telling stories about kids, suffusing them with ambivalence and insecurity about their still-evolving selves that feels both heartfelt and authentic.

So it is, once again many years later, with "Flipped," a tale of very young love and loss also set in the '60s. And though our two lovebirds, Juli and Bryce, live in white, middle-class suburbia, the experience feels universal and the oft-trod coming-of-age terrain feels newly turned.

Walter Reich, writing in The Wilson Quarterly, examines why many Israelis despair for the prospects of peace, and are concerned that the latest peace initiative of the Obama Administration will only make matters worse for Israel. He argues that in order for American Middle East diplomacy to succeed, the Administration must understand Israeli despair, and address it constructively. [HT: The Hedgehog.]